Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019

Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Check in 6:15 pm; Lecture 6:30 pm; tasting of American agricultural products following the talk
New York University Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health
411 Lafayette St, 5th Floor (between East 4th and Astor Place)
Buy tickets securely online at Eventbrite: https://richandfertile.eventbrite.com

In 1836, President Andrew Jackson received a gift, a 1400-pound cheese, 2 feet thick and 11 feet in circumference. Created by Col. Thomas S. Meacham, a dairy farmer with lands north of Syracuse, the mammoth cheese caused a sensation as it was sent by boat along the Erie Canal to Albany, down the Hudson to New York City, and on to Washington. Americans considered the cheese and its journey proof of modern American mastery over the environment. Yet less than two generations before, James Fenimore Cooper had called that area of New York a “wilderness.” How and why did the landscape (and Americans’ attitudes towards it) change from an untamed wild to a “civilized” terrain?

From early Native Americans to modern industrial farmers, people have imagined the ideal agricultural landscape and have attempted to transform their environments in pursuit of those conceptions. This talk looks at some of the ideas that drove those transformations, how those ideas were altered by available tools, and how changing ideas of “progress” transform the land.

Bruce Kraig is emeritus professor of history and humanities at Roosevelt University, Chicago; founder and president emeritus of the Culinary Historians of Chicago; and a founder of Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. He has written, edited, or coauthored numerous books and articles for both scholarly and popular audiences, including A Rich and Fertile Land: A History of Food in America, published in 2017.

Fee: MEMBERS’ EARLY BIRD RATE: $22 for Members and Senior Members who register before March 25
$25 CHNY Members after March 25 | $40 Nonmembers and Guests | $10 Full-time students with ID
NYU students and faculty may attend at no charge, but must RSVP.
Current members may purchase a single ticket at the members’ rate; members wishing to bring guests may purchase additional tickets at the non-member rate.
PLEASE RESERVE BY Monday, April 1, 2019